US Senate approves $211 million for ****** in new $633 billion war bill [View all]

<>The bill would authorize $528 billion for the Defense Department’s base budget, $17 billion for defense and nuclear programs in the Energy Department and $88.5 billion for the war in Afghanistan. The bill is $1.7 billion more than Obama requested.

<>Panetta said members of the House and Senate “diverted about $74 billion of what we asked for in savings in our proposed budget to the Congress, and they diverted them to other areas that, frankly, we don’t need.”

<> The bill would authorize nearly $480 million for U.S.-Israeli missile defense, including $211 million for Iron Dome, the system designed to intercept short-range rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza at southern Israel.